<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>MINNEAPOLIS -- Mavericks coach Avery Johnson loves to talk about going into his "lab," where he meets with his assistants and players to analyze, dissect and strategize. With little time to waste in a Western Conference in which the top nine teams are separated by five games (entering Saturday's play), Jason Kidd is next in line for a crash course. "They realize there's not much of the season left now," Johnson said. "We've all got to get on the same page. I'll get with a few guys, mainly Kidd, and work through a couple of situations." Johnson allowed the team to work through some rough patches Friday in the third quarter when it scored just 16 points after piling up 62 in the first half against Memphis. "We got a little bit out of control, but I wanted to continue to let them stay out of control a little bit more and just run, run, run, run, run," Johnson said. "I'll talk to Kidd about some plays that maybe he can keep in his back pocket that we can run during those times." Time is of the essence for the Mavs, who occupy the sixth seed. After tonight's game against the Minnesota Timberwolves and Monday night's home game against Chicago, four of the next five games are at San Antonio, at the Los Angeles Lakers, at Utah and at home against Houston, which has won 11 in a row. "When you believe that you can [win], you start to put a nice win streak together," Kidd said. "You see teams like Houston and other teams putting win streaks together. For us, it's not to win two, lose one. Let's string some together so that we can get a better seed and have the confidence going into the postseason." That will take cohesion. It wasn't there in Kidd's debut against the New Orleans Hornets when he had five assists and six turnovers. Against Memphis, hardly a good barometer, he had 15 assists -- a team high this season -- and two turnovers. The Mavs had 32 assists, a season high. "More than anything, it really wasn't about playing against another team as much it was us trying to figure out what works and some things we need to eliminate," Johnson said. "Like I said all along, we need to practice, play some games and get more and more stuff on video so we can continue in this process of trying to get this team headed in the right direction."</div> Source
